The monsoon has arrived in South Konkan and Central Maharashtra and is expected to arrive in some more parts of the State in the next 72 hours, but Mumbaikars may have to wait for another few days.
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The India Meteorological Department (IMD) is expecting further advancement of the monsoon in Maharashtra, including Mumbai, in the next three days. The Mumbai monsoon is likely to arrive by Sunday at the earliest.
Cyclone Vayu has delayed the arrival of the monsoon in Maharashtra. While it arrived in Kerala on June 8, the cyclone stalled its advance in the rest of the country. The monsoon proceeded towards Mangalore and other parts of Karnataka only last week.
On Thursday, it advanced into parts of South Konkan, Goa and Central Maharashtra, particularly Ratnagiri and Kolhapur districts. On Thursday, it rained in Chiplun, Guhagar, Harnai, Lanja, Rajapur, Ratnagiri, Devgad, Kankavli, Malvan, Vaibhabvadi and Vengurla.
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The monsoon is set to move to some more parts of the State in the next two-three days. According to Skymet, a low pressure area in the Bay of Bengal will move from the southern parts of Chhattisgarh and Vidarbha towards Central Maharashtra around June 23 and then towards Konkan, Goa and the Arabian Sea wherein the system will weaken. Because of this low pressure area, Mumbai and Konkan will get rain, heralding the arrival of the monsoon.
The IMD’s Santacruz observatory has recorded 165 mm of rain so far, against the season’s average of 2,514 mm. This is 6.58% of the average. Last year, on June 20, this figure was at 16.1%. On Thursday, the city recorded 0.6 mm rain.